Nasa restores vintage photos from 1960s Gemini Project

Nasa has released a huge online gallery of restored photographs from Project Gemini -- the agency's second human spaceflight program and the important baby steps towards landing on the Moon.

After completing Project Mercury in 1963, Nasa moved on to the more sophisticated and ambitious Gemini. This saw a larger two-man spacecraft punch through the atmosphere and orbit the planet for long periods of time.

The two-year project saw the first American spacewalk, when Edward White hopped out of from the second manned Gemini flight. It saw Nasa's first rendezvous (Gemini VI-A with Gemini VII), first docking of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft (Gemini VII with Agena) and the first on-board computer in space.

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The Gemini flights helped Nasa astronauts learn to work and live in space, paving the way for the Apollo Programme, which would see humans landing on the Moon.

To document this important stepping stone on human spaceflight history, Nasa has uploaded thousands of photos from the project on its March to the Moon resource site. The digitally remastered photos, scanned and restored from original film, show space in awesome colour and clarity.

There are plenty of photos to pick through at Nasa's archive (and turn into beautiful retro space wallpapers, if you're so inclined), but we've chosen some of the very best for our gallery below.